NJ lawmakers craft brewery bill to end tours, add food vendors

Village Idiot Brewing in Mount Holly, together with Spellbound Brewery, has made the city a destination for beer lovers. The town is in the midst of a beer revolution with two breweries opening within the last year, Spellbound Brewing and Village Idiot Brewing.(Photo: Jose F. Moreno/Courier-Post)Buy Photo

TRENTON - Brewery tours would be out and food vendors in if the first bill addressing microbrewery operations is adopted by lawmakers.

Assemblymen Joe Howarth, R-Burlington, and Wayne DeAngelo, D-Mercer, introduced a bill Thursday that would amend the 2012 law that established microbreweries in New Jersey and governs their operations.

ABC Director David Rible said his ruling was paused for additional study, including conversations with legislators and microbrewery owners.

The bipartisan bill would end brewery tours as a requirement for purchasing beer in tasting rooms. It also would allow unlimited onsite events for yoga and craft classes, live music and open mics, and televised and streamed sporting events on TVs.

The bill proposes the same limit of 12 off-site events, each requiring a permit, but would allow microbreweries to offer soda and takeout food menus to visitors and permit food vendors on their premises.

This bill's allowances, she said, mirror the structure of breweries in other states, like New York, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.

Until the ABC's ruling — which spurred more than 25,000 people to sign a petition calling for the ruling's suspension and addition study — Myers wasn't sure state policymakers understood how much the public supports the "craft brewery experience," including activities and events at breweries.

Brewed Independent was responsible for the petition. The group — a collection of South Jersey breweries including Human Village, Death of the Fox and Lower Forge — met with Howarth and laid out the needs of "downtown breweries," according to Death of the Fox owner Chuck Garrity.